Fear The Spotlight Review

Born in the mid-90s, I grew up with VHS tapes, floppy discs, dial-up internet, and wired home phones that would interrupt that dial-up connection when it rang. This meant that I also grew up with the first generation of PlayStation, obsessing over games like Speed Freaks and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, both of which my older brother would school me at regularly. I was too young and too afraid to enjoy the genre-defining horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, but later in life I would learn to appreciate the influence they had on the scene.

Developed by Cozy Game Pals, Fear the Spotlight is a title that doesn’t take inspiration from that era as much as it looks to recapture its essence entirely. While the visuals are an immediate telltale sign of the team’s intent, Fear the Spotlight’s more impressive feat is feeling like an homage to what came before, while leveraging nearly 30 years of progress and innovation.

A member of the chess club and a library regular, studious and well-mannered highschooler Vivian is all about books and exams, not breaking and entering. That is, unless she’s looking to impress her close friend and secret crush, Amy. Under the cover of midnight, the two teens sneak into Sunnyside High to perform a séance, the school being a hotbed for superstition after a mysterious fire that claimed the lives of numerous students in the 90s.

Relax, Viv, Nothing has ever gone wrong when using a spirit board

As they are wont to do, the séance goes sideways, with Amy disappearing and Vivian being transported to a dreamscape version of the school from its grizzly past. Alone and understandably confused, Viv must venture into the dark and sinister corridors of the school to find Amy, though it’s soon made clear that she might not be as alone as she thought.

While Vivian will catch glimpses of hollow-eyed spectres that are implied to be the lost souls of the children who perished, Fear the Spotlight is completely devoid of combat, focusing instead on exploration and puzzle solving. Similar to the aforementioned Resident Evil, Vivian will consistently have her path through the faculties blocked, requiring her to find key items to progress. While the puzzle pieces and solutions are more straight forward than those found in its inspiration, you might find items like light projectors and AV cables a bit confusing, unless you lived through the panic of Y2K. For those of an older vintage, it’s perfect 90s nostalgia.

There’s a tangibility to each puzzle and object in the nightmarish version of Sunnyside. Interacting with key items will transition you into a point-and-click-style encounter where you can select an item and then physically use it. Whether it be smashing a window with a hammer, unscrewing screws from a vent, or lighting candles and moving a planchette, these moments help elevate the experience and tension equally. You best believe I squinted each and every time I had to manually lift a lid or open a door.

Using an inhaler after running three metres makes me feel seen

With that said, the game doesn’t rely at all on jump scares or cheap tricks. The horror and fear are found in the tone and the unknown, with the striking retro aesthetic helping to mask figures in the dark and plant seeds of doubt about what’s lurking around the corner. That’s not to say you aren’t in danger, however. Sporadic encounters with the game’s main antagonist, the titular Spotlight, are uncomfortable moments of cat and mouse. And while these instances quickly become predictable, his initial arrival and unnerving voice lines always deliver the spooks.

I’ve mentioned it a few times already, but it’s hard to overstate how effective the PS1-era visuals are. Toggleable in the settings for those who don’t love the vibe, a VHS filter, a native camera shake, and a pixel wobble mix together to create an authentic throwback look and feel that will speak to anyone from that time and should interest those curious to explore the historic aesthetics of the genre. Vivian controls like a third-person protagonist from 2024, and the voice cast is impeccable at conveying emotion, so not everything is ripped from the 90s, thankfully.

You won’t be scared out of your skin playing Fear the Spotlight, but there are story beats, none of which I will spoil, that genuinely surprised me with its maturity. My heartrate may not have spiked by the time the credits rolled, but I was left with a palpable sense of unease that I wasn’t expecting. The relationship between Vivian and Amy was equally as well-told, with the motivations of both characters feeling genuine, and their deepening friendship feeling organic, which is, in large part, thanks to the generally great writing and consistently excellent voice acting.

I can assure you, this is NOT a bully- free zone

Final Thoughts

I can’t fully explain why I fell in love with Fear the Spotlight without sullying the experience, but the allure of a retro-inspired horror game that embraces modern sensibilities should be enough to get you in the door to find out. The combat-free, atmospheric gameplay may be easier and less immediately frightening than some would like, but the tactility of the puzzle-solving and the engaging narrative told through an excellently paced four-hour run time more than compensates. Whether you know payphones and a fax machine or not, this should be at the top of your list to play during this spooky season.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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